What does at WAHM do?

What does a work at home mom do all day?

• Do some field work
• Consider stopping by starbucks on the way back
• Complete an office task related to the field work by 10 or 11am-the due date
• Order 2 inspections
• Fax 2 forms to the electric utility dept
• Check on status of outstanding task list
• Draft the interview questionnaire and pre-interview questionnaire. I should have remnants of previously used questionnaires around somewhere.
• Arrange for someone to care for my preschooler when I conduct interviews
• Consider whether to conduct interviews at home office or at a public place-I've used coffee shops and bookstores before.
• Research QuickBooks payroll
• Consider that although I own QuickBooks, I don't know how to use it. Think about finding a QuickBooks class
• Create a file for a new file the office received
• Draft a notice to be used on a file-field work
• Call a client and ask a question about a file-that I already asked but received no answer
• Submit options to a client

and get my child to tryouts by 11 and make sure the kids are fed and the house doesn't get destroyed by the 3 kids home today.

Some things never change

I read my previous posts about hiring help and it just so happens I need to hire more help. Don't get me wrong, I have had successes hiring people recently, but I am in the middle of a hiring challenge. I have an independently contracted assistant who does a good job, but is not keeping up on the volume of work. When I told her that I need her to keep up or let me know so I can do it, she re-wrote her job description telling me she would only do the things she feels like she can do, I want her to do other things. So, I have to hire someone else. She makes about 30/hr right now working part time at her own home and I am moving towards hring an employee whom I would pay less and be able to tell more specifically what has to get done. I guess when I look at it like that, I can see that it is for the best to hire someone else. But I do like my assistant and a part of me doesn't want her to think I'm being mean to her, but I have to hire someone else because I have personal and business goals that do not include me taking on half the work that is better suited to someone else.

The good thing about hiring an employee is that my costs may go down while the amount of work I outsource will increase. The other really good thing is that people have laready responded to my ad.

The bad thing is the taxes and withholding I will need to figure out how to do myself. I found a free all day employer tax class sponsored by my local emplyment development department, the class times will allow me to drop my kids off at school and pick them up, I'll only need to find someone to watch my preschoolers. I'm very choosy about him going away from me while I work. I am loving the silence in my home. I sometimes wish my kids were gone all day so that I would have silence like this to work in all the time. Nah, I'm lying, I would never put them in day care and I would miss them, but I am so much more productive when they are sleeping. Gosh, it's 1st light out, 6:45am and I should leave now to do my field work. The other bad thing about hiring an employee is that I will not be able to pay them on a 30 day net like I do with my ic's. I also hate the liability of employees, but that is why I formed an s-corp, so I could grow without increasing liability. But, I have got to find workable solutions to this problem.

The simple life

Wow, it was beneficial for me to visit my blog, after so much time. I guess I could say that I am still at the same spot I was in last November...wondering where to go next? I still am overwhelmed and have taken some steps toward relief of that. Since November, I have tried hiring several assistants, to no avail. So, I have upgraded my license so that I can work independently and I also am working affiliated with a traditional office that provides many time saving efficiency tools at a price. But I have to remember that I don't want money as much as I want less time at work.

I specifically came online today to blog about balancing work and family. I think balance is a myth. I think that you have to make choices and prioritize according to your goals. I absolutely love being home with my son. I gaze into his 3 year old eyes while he sits on my lap and tell him how blessed we are to have each other and how much I thank God for giving me a son. I love him that much. Especially when it's quiet and I'm not rushing and I have time to love him. I only have that time when I make the choice not to work. It is easy to fill up my WAH day with busyness. I am trying very hard to only work early in the am or at his nap time and if for whatever reason I can't work at those times I do not work during other times of the day-except to answer the telephone. I am trying to put him 1st and the housework 2nd. I have been really taking it easy at work. It is simply a question of deciding what to do next.

The entrepreneur in me says grow-in fact my business grows automatically, and it is a blessing to have money.

I think my goals will have to be to just earn enough-and nothing more. I think I felt like a failure to cap my growth. I have to make sure of what I want. I feel this pressure to keep growing, to make as much money as I can to some avail...but what avail? I believe that the best thing I can do is be a good mom, and a good wife.

So, I have to balance ambition with motherhood and I can do it if I stop to evaluate my goals and the consequences.

The baby woke up from nap, so I've got to go!